TiE and U.S. Embassy, New Delhi and Consulates partner to Empower Women Entrepreneurs from Tier II and Tier III Indian cities

Bhubaneswar: TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) today inaugurated a four-day mentoring and skill development workshop for early stage women entrepreneurs in Lucknow.

This is part of Project AIRSWEEE 2.0(All India Roadshow on Women’s Economic Empowerment through Entrepreneurship 2.0 – Scaling Women’s Entrepreneurship in India),TiE Global’s marquee program for women’s economic empowerment through entrepreneurship in Tier 2 and 3 cities in India. Under this program, TiE Global, with support from U.S, Embassy, New Delhi and its four Consulates, is hosting4-day workshops in fiveTier 2 and 3 cities –Bhubaneswar, Lucknow, Hubballi,Vadodara and Patna. Each location has invited four states to participate and a total 150 participants have been chosen from over 800 applicants. Each workshop city will host 30 mentee participants. The workshops, which will help women entrepreneurs to scale up their businesses, will be free of cost for the selected participants. The objective of Project AIRSWEEE 2.0 is to educate and inspire women in smaller Indian cities to consider entrepreneurship as a viable and rewarding career path so as to empower women through entrepreneurship. The AIRSWEEE project is now in its second year.

The Bhubaneswar workshop, which will be held from 14th to 17th March 2018 in Hotel Crown, Nayapalli, Bhubaneswar two mentors Ms. SeemaChaturvedi and Ms. Caroline Lewishave travelled from the US for the workshop. A representative from the US embassy is also present. The selected US based mentors will work along-side selected India based mentors to share best practices, experience and knowledge with the 30 women mentees from Kolkata, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh and other cities of Odisha.

AIRSWEEE’s Chairperson, Ms. Seema Chaturvedi notes that AIRSWEEE is seeking to create a significant multiplier effect by creating a pay-it-forward culture by requiring each of these 150 mentees to mentor at least 2 mentees each. This will create a ripple effect of at least 450 empowered women entrepreneurs in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities in India.

Speaking at the inaugural session, Mr. Debasish Patnaik, President of TiE Bhubaneswar said that the chapter was proud to be associated with Project AIRSWEEE and that entrepreneurship was a very effective way of empowering women. Mr.Prafulla Samal, Minister MSME & W&CD also present for the inaugural expressed his happiness for doing the women entrepreneurship workshop AIRSWEEE, Ms. Katherine Hadda, the Consul General from Hyderabad Consulate said, “India is a country bursting with potential, particularly among entrepreneurs, but it’s largely untapped, especially with respect to women in Tier II cities. The U.S. government’s objective through this program is to tap into this amazing potential women in second tier cities have, to encourage them, to support them, to help them network, to mentor them to believe in themselves, not only to launch a start-up but to reach commercial success. Our objective is to empower women in second tier cities through entrepreneurship, so that they can become leaders.”